북미 이후, 바빠진 美•동북아 외교 - 봉영식 박사 대담

Joining us now to discuss that press conference between the foreign ministers, as well as looking back on the North Korea-U.S. summit itself, is Dr. Bong Young-shik, from the Yonsei Institute for North Korea Studies. It's good to have you with us again.

My pleasure.

1 - Let's start with some of the details that came out of the press conference. Once again Mike Pompeo, and Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono, talked about CVID, complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization. However, as we all now know that wasn't included in agreement signed in Singapore. Pompeo has tried to justify it saying that the phrase 'complete denuclearization' is enough to cover verification as well. What do you say to that?

2 - One point that both Kang and Kono stressed as well is that the June 12th summit is only the start. They seemed to imply that the declaration is the start and that more will be built from that. Is that foundation strong enough to move forward? (or is it just too vague?)

3 - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went straight from the summit in Singapore to Seoul to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in as well as Kang and Kono. I guess we can see this as a message that the U.S. values the cooperation of its allies. But then at the same time, reports seem to suggest South Korea and Japan were not consulted in Trump's decision to stop joint military drills. What should be made of this?

3a - There are some who suggest that actually stopping the drills is not that big a deal, that it has been done before, and they can be restarted at any time. Does this argument have some weight?

4. - Pompeo has revealed that talks with North Korea will continue next week. How much do you think the U.S. will try to work with South Korea moving forward?